Discover the best tourist attractions of western Ukraine with Maria Zawaski! Maria is a freelance journalist, born on the West of Ukraine, got married to Canada. "Now, when I live abroad, I recommend to all my foreign friends to visit western part of my home country Ukraine. Why the western one - it is because I used to live there, so I am more familiar with that part of the country and I can tell lots of stories about the culture, lifestyle and traditions of Ukrainian West," Maria says

Must-See Churches in Lviv

There are lots of beautiful churches in Lviv and each one of them is absolutely worth to visit if you are traveling in Lviv, this amazing West Ukrainian city. Well, I made my own list of Lviv churches which I would recommend to everyone who is going to visit Lviv. There are three names only in my must-see list: it is because they are my favorite ones :) Oh, I forgot to mention that Lviv is my favorite city in entire world, although I am not from Lviv. I used to live in 2.5 hours drive from Lviv. I graduated from Lviv’s University, I spent wonderful years of my life in Lviv and I met my future husband for the first time in Lviv (we met online before to meet in real, and our first meeting in real was in Lviv!). And finally, we got married in Lviv: in one of these churches I am going to tell you about. As you can see, Lviv means A LOT to me, so do Lviv churches.Ok, let’s start our little tour.

Saint George’s Cathedral is really must-see in Lviv, doesn’t matter, it is in my list or not. Well, it is, and not only because the Cathedral is one of the symbols of Lviv, but because it is a very first church I have visited in Lviv (it was in 1985) and since then I keep returning to this church again and again. I have very special feelings where I am over there: something medieval, something enigmatical and something highly spiritual, all at the same time.
The Cathedral was built in baroque-rococo style in 1744-1760, designed by architect Bernard Meretin and sculptor Johann Georg Pinsel. Yes, the same Johann Georg Pinsel (1707- circa 1760), whose sculptures you can see over October-December 2011 in the Louis the Fourteenth Chapel of the Louvre Museum (Paris). It is going to be a first exhibition ever of works by Ukrainian artist in the history of the Louvre! Many experts call Johann Georg Pinsel as “the most mysterious artist of a renaissance time” and “the West Ukrainian Michelangelo”. Here is a picture of the entrance of the Saint George’s Cathedral with two Pinsel’s works: Saint Leo the Pope and Saint Athanasius statues.

Church of Saint Olha and Elizabeth was built in 1903-1911 in neo-Gothic style. Why I actually love this church and why it is one of my favorites? Because it is simply beautiful, majestic and magnificent outside

and inside.

This is a kind of church where every bride feels herself a real princess on her marriage ceremony.

This is an amazing wooden church of 18 century, located in Lviv Open Air Heritage Museum. The church was moved to the museum from the village of Kryvky (Lviv oblast). The church has a beautiful name of Divine Wisdom. My husband Ron and I had our marriage ceremony in this church. It was so romantic!
Here is a picture of the church

and here is a video.

The picture was taken on a second day Ron and I met in real and the video was filmed at our wedding day :)

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You don’t need visa for travel to Ukraine

If you are citizen of USA, Canada, European Union, Switzerland or Liechtenstein, you don’t need a TOURIST visa for travel to Ukraine. Decree about it was signed in 2005. Tourist visa to Ukraine means that you are going to stay in Ukraine not more than 90 days. So for your short term stay in Ukraine (less than 90 days) you just need to have a travel passport and to buy a ticket, that’s it.
P.S. The same rules work for the citizens of Japan, Andorra, Vatican, Iceland, Monaco, Norway and San Marino. People of these countries don’t need a tourist visa to Ukraine, too.